Ouster of Vatican Bank Chief Takes Strange Twist

ROME (AP) — Italian authorities seized a private document meant for Pope Benedict XVI when they raided the home of the Vatican's recently ousted bank chief, a potentially problematic legal twist in an already bizarre case.

Italian paramilitary police raided Ettore Gotti Tedeschi's home in Piacenza on Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation into Italy's state-controlled aerospace giant Finmeccanica. Gotti Tedeschi is a longtime friend of Finmeccanica's current chief, who is under investigation in the probe.

Gotti Tedeschi's lawyer said Thursday that during the raid, prosecutors seized a memorandum that Gotti Tedeschi had prepared for Benedict concerning his controversial May 24 ouster as Vatican bank president.

The seizure poses potentially thorny legal issues, since Gotti Tedeschi was until recently an official of a sovereign state — the Vatican — and as such enjoys some immunity.